Fat content and fatty acid pattern in muscle and adipose tissue from differently reared calves

Two groups of Simmental calves were fed a milk replacer diet or were early weaned and slaughtered at the age of 4 months. Two muscles and two adipose tissue samples were removed, the lipids were extracted by chloroform-methanol and the fatty acid composition was analyzed by gas chromatography after transesterification with Na-methylate. Total lipid contents in both muscles were relatively small (<2%) Due to high phospholipid content, veal muscle lipids contain a high proportion of polyene fatty acids which accounted for more than 30%. Adipose tissue consists predominantly of oleic acid (from 34% to 37%) and palmitic acid (from 27% to 29%). In extractable perinephric fat, milk replacer diet caused significantly higher myristic acid (C(14)) values and, accordingly, lower oleic (C(18:1)) values.